Olympus E-M5 has a Micro Four Thirds lens mount and currently there are 98 native lenses available for this mount. MFT is the most mature and versatile mount in the Mirrorles camera world. Olympus MFT lenses are known by their high optical quality and affordable prices. Other main contributor of the system, Panasonic also offers similarly well regarded lenses. Third party lens manufacturers also increase number of their offering and new manufacturers also jump in the wagon as the popularity of the system increases.

E-M5 also has a Sensor based 5-axis Image Stabilization system which means that all of these lenses will be stabilized when used on E-M5. Sensor based image stabilization is one of the most useful features that you can have in an ILC. There are also 25 lenses with weather sealing for E-M5 that you can couple with its weather sealed body.

Here are some of the most popular Olympus E-M5 Lenses on Camera Decision:

Olympus E-M5 has a 16.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features TruePic VI processor. You can shoot at maximum resolution of 4608 x 3456 pixels with aspect ratios of 1:1, 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9. E-M5 has a native ISO range of 200 - 25600 which can be boosted to 100 and it can save files in RAW format which gives you a wider room for post processing.

DxOMark is a benchmark that scientifically assesses image quality of camera sensors. Olympus E-M5 sensor has been tested by DxO Mark and got an overall score of 71 for its image quality. You can find the details of their analysis of Olympus E-M5 here.

Let's look at how the size of the Olympus E-M5's Four Thirds sensor compares with other standard sensor sizes.

Olympus E-M5 Physical Specs

Olympus E-M5 weighs 425 g (0.94 lb / 14.99 oz) and has external dimensions of 122 x 89 x 43 mm (4.8 x 3.5 x 1.69″). Considering that the average weight of Mirrorless type cameras is 423g, its weight is about average in its class. With a thickness of 43mm, it also has an average thickness.

Weight Comparison

Mirrorless Cameras

Olympus E-M5

Min

Average

Max

Thickness Comparison

Mirrorless Cameras

Olympus E-M5

Min

Average

Max

Here is the front and top view image of Olympus E-M5 with the dimensions:

In order to give you a better idea about the real life size of Olympus E-M5, we have added an image of how it looks next to a credit card and an AA type battery.

Now lets compare the weight and thickness of Olympus E-M5 with its main competitors:

Weather Sealing

Olympus E-M5 has environmental sealings on its body which makes it a weather resistant camera, providing resistance against the water and dust getting in to the camera. If you like outdoors photography and want to be able to use your camera in extreme conditions, Olympus E-M5 will serve you well. If you attach one of these Olympus E-M5 weather Sealed lenses to your camera, you will have a great all weather kit.

Olympus E-M5 Other Features

LCD and Viewfinder

Olympus E-M5 has a Tilting 3" LCD screen with a resolution of 610k dots. Both the screen size and the screen resolution is up to the standards of this class.

LCD is Touch screen type, so you can change the settings and set the focus point with your fingertips.

E-M5 has a built-in Electronic viewfinder. The viewfinder has a resolution of 1,440kdots and coverage of 100%. 100% coverage ensures that what you see in the viewfinder while shooting matches exactly what you will get later in your image, helping accurate framing your shots and minimizes the need for cropping images later.

Max Shutter speed

Olympus E-M5 can shoot continuously at max speed of 9 fps and has max shutter speed of 1/4000 sec.

Flash

Unfortunately E-M5 doesn't have a built-in flash but it has a flash shoe for mounting external flashes and Olympus also includes a small external flash with the E-M5 that you can mount on when you need.

Focusing

Olympus E-M5 features a Contrast Detection autofocusing system. The AF system has 35 points to choose from. Olympus E-M5 also features Face detection AF where it intelligently detects the faces in the frame and locks the focus automatically.

Video Features

With Olympus E-M5, you can record your videos at a highest resolution of 1920 x 1080 at 60 fps and save in H.264 and Motion JPEG formats. Full HD resolution of Olympus E-M5 will be adequate in most of the situations. But if you are after the highest resolution videos available, see our list of Top Cameras with 4K (Ultra-HD) Video.

E-M5 has a built-in Stereo microphone and a Mono speaker. Olympus E-M5 also has a port for an external microphone so you can record high quality sound with the help of an external microphone.

Connectivity and Storage

Battery

Olympus E-M5 is powered by battery which provides a shooting life of 360 according to CIPA standards.
Considering that the average battery life of Mirrorless type cameras is 362 shots, its battery life is about average in its class but it would still be wise to invest in some spare batteries for long photo trips.

In this section, we review and score Olympus E-M5 in 5 different photography areas. This first spider web graph shows how the E-M5 compares with the average Mirrorless camera.
Hover your mouse over the points to see the score details for each photography type.

Olympus E-M5 for Portrait Photography

Olympus E-M5 has a score of 65 for Portrait Photography which makes it a GOOD candidate for this type of photography. If you are looking for a camera that is better suited to Portrait Photography, we recommend you to check our Top 10 Mirrorless Cameras for Portrait Photography list.

Olympus E-M5 for Sports Photography

Olympus E-M5 has a score of 71 for Sports Photography which makes it a GOOD candidate for this type of photography. If you are looking for a camera that is better suited to Sports Photography, we recommend you to check our Top 10 Mirrorless Cameras for Sports Photography list.

Olympus E-M5 for Daily Photography

Olympus E-M5 has a score of 69 for Daily Photography which makes it a GOOD candidate for this type of photography. If you are looking for a camera that is better suited to Daily Photography, we recommend you to check our Top 10 Mirrorless Cameras for Daily Photography list.

In this section, we analyse how Olympus E-M5 compares with other Mirrorless cameras within a similar price range. In the Bubble chart below, you can see Overall Score vs Price comparison of E-M5 and the top 10 contenders in the same range. Hover your mouse on the bubbles to see the details of the cameras.